In May, 2014 dancer Kenneth Bruun Carlson and I participated in the opening of the exhibition Dance Me at Wanås Konst by performing a 45-minute score/loop for two days. The exhibition included, Molly Haslund, Christian Jankowski, Tadashi Kawamata, Sigalit Landau, and Salla Tykkä.

The score was created so that the audience could walk in and out of the structure during the performance or stay for the entire thing until it looped back to the beginning. Since our first weeks at Wanås Kenneth and I were working with movement qualities, physical intensities, and the impact of macro and micro movement in close proximity to the audience. Tangentially, or perhaps as a byproduct of the schedule we created for ourselves we were also experiencing the effects of exhaustion and how that played upon the work.

How do we create a performance score that can be performed 6 times a day for 10 days during Konstrundan? What if people are coming to buy art/objects and not coming to experience performance?

-In April dancer Kenneth Bruun Carlson and I created a 35-minute score, which we performed for ten days during Konstrundan. We met audiences of 1-20 people at a time. Meeting audiences during Konstrundan (an event created to highlight and boost the sales of visual artists in Österlen, especially the members of the Östra Skånes Konstärsgille) was an entirely different format than meeting audiences accustomed to seeing performance regularly. Throughout the ten days visitors came to Wanås as part of Konstrundan and had the possibility of seeing one of six shows per day. While some audience came specifically to see dance, the majority of our audience was attracted to Wanås because of the sculpture park and Konstrundan. Although many of the viewers were relatively inexperienced with performance they were open, and interested. We dialogued with them at length post performance through Souvenir Dialogue, an exhibition curated adjacent to the room Souvenir was installed in. Inside of the room were performance scores for the audience to practice as well as documentation (photographic and written), and materials for the audience to manipulate.

In February 2014, we installed Souvenir in the Konsthall at Wanås Konst. This was the beginning of our extended residency as part of the Dance Me exhibition. Dancer Kenneth Bruun Carlson and I completed a one-week research period in preparation for Konstrundan.

As a choreographer I am interested in how the choreographic act can be extended to the labor involved in the production of my choreographic work. This includes production: organization and collaboration with technical support as well as the two to three day construction (re-assembly) phase of the Souvenir project. In previous iterations of the project the dancers participated in the building of the structure. At Wanås I collaborated with the technical team for installation in the Konsthall and barn.

How does contact with the materials and architecture through hands on work effect the eventual outcome through performance?

-Within a large institution like Wanås Konst (or Baryhsnikov Arts Center and Governor’s Island) we (the dancers, choreographer, and lighting designer) have a framework that remains a constant. We understand how it is put together, what is weight bearing and what is less so, and how to move it in the most efficient manner. As the stable factor within the choreographic proposition, Souvenir provides us with a platform to assess the context in which we are situated. From inside of Souvenir’s walls we process the sound and light inherent to the site in which we are installed. We begin to understand how the audience moves through the world outside of our walls and are subject to their movement and choices once they enter the structure. Souvenir acts as a container for memory: the performer’s memories of previous performances, housed in their bodies over an extended run of performances. We begin to understand how the structure processes different situations and see how the choreographic proposition changes with each new context into which we interject the choreographic architecture. Our bodies become conditioned by the dimensions, textures, and proportions of the structure. Our senses become accustomed to the sounds and light filtered through the structure.

We have added a show this week for the performance “How Long, How Far” with Karin Thunberg at MARC. The 35 minute solo was created as an adaptation of a manuscript from journalist and playwright Thunberg. The show begins at 19.00 and end at 20.00. Please join us for the final performance at MARC, Gladeholm 1, 27735 Kivik.

Rachel Tess Dance is a platform for interdisciplinary contemporary dance collaborations based in Portland, Oregon and Kivik, Sweden.